Portable containers (such as suitcases, trunks, bags, carrying cases et cetera) are currently commercially widespread which are constituted by a pair of mutually articulated half-shells which are affected, at respective edges, by the action of one or more locks capable of ensuring a hermetic seal in the closed configuration and the preservation of such seal, avoiding the danger of accidental opening.
In particular, with reference to specific fields of application of a professional type, the hermetic seal, and more generally the integrity of the suitcase and of its contents, must be ensured even after violent knocks and impacts, such as for example those occurring as a consequence of a fall, which instead in a suitcase of a traditional type might cause it to open.
There is, therefore, a widespread resort to structurally complicated locks, which achieve the above stated aim by oversizing the involved parts.
Accordingly, these bulky locks are scarcely practical and maneuverable, increasing even substantially, and therefore undesirably, the overall weight of the product and requiring the user to apply a considerable manual effort in order to provide the release, and therefore the voluntary opening, of the suitcase.
To obviate these drawbacks, locks have been marketed which are provided with means for the rapid release of a clamp designed to fasten the two half-shells: such means are constituted for example by a lever which is hinged to the clamp and can be operated manually to make it abut against the clamp, releasing it and thus opening the container.
Even these constructive solutions, however, are not free from drawbacks.
Due to the considerable dimensions of the parts involved, the extent of the force that must be applied to the lever in order to achieve release often assumes excessive values, such as to make it awkward to open the lock.
Moreover, the need to resort to a plurality of distinct elements leads to the provision of locks which are in any case complicated and particularly subject to breakage and/or deterioration caused by wear of the parts and by prolonged contact with dust and other impurities.